LGBTQ+ workers still experience discrimination and barriers to workplace advancement

Despite progress in recent decades, support for the LGBTQ+ community has declined in recent years, and LGBTQ+ professionals face hurdles that can impact their productivity and ability to show up authentically at work, a new study finds. Transgender workers, in particular, often lack support from other professionals, and increased political attacks on the group could cause further harm to the community at large.

Discrimination persists. The Pride Under Pressure report was conducted by the think tank Coqual, and examined the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers from five countries, including the US. The organization believes that as LGBTQ+ workers face more attacks from some parts of the government, they need more support from private businesses.

While the Supreme Court ruled in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia opinion that discrimination against LGBTQ+ employees is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the community still faces several barriers at work. LGBTQ+ professionals surveyed said that discrimination impacts their wellbeing, including their:

• Productivity (16%),
• Feeling of safety when they travel to work (18%), and
• Mental health (21%).

The report also sheds light on how discrimination shows up on the job, a spectrum that ranges from microaggressions, such as being told to dress more masculine or feminine, to sexual harassment with inappropriate questions about their body. LGBTQ+ workers also reported that they’ve been told they’re “oversensitive” about discriminatory language, and have been mocked for their gender identity.

“[One coworker] would drop the word ‘f-g’ with total casualness. He knew I was gay and just didn’t care,” one respondent said of their experience. “I have had times where my boss’s boss basically refused in a meeting room, for a Zoom, to sit on a sofa next to me.”

Many respondents said they hide their identities at work. Some 67% said they avoid discussing their sexual orientation, while one in three said they’re “not out to anyone at work,” and 41% avoid using names or pronouns if they discuss someone they are dating.

Four in 10 workers also said they think they should hide their sexual orientation to advance in their career. As HR Brew previously reported, studies have found that identity covering is prevalent among LGBTQ+ workers, and the report pointed out that DEI programming is vital for workers to feel safe being themselves.

An uphill climb for transgender workers. There appears to be a disconnect between support for workers who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB), and trans employees. Most (90%) non-LGBTQ+ workers said they believe LGB colleagues deserve the same rights as everyone else, but just 66% believe people should be allowed to have a gender identity that differs from their birth gender. In addition, only half of respondents believe that people should be allowed to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

There’s been a surge of anti-trans legislation and rhetoric with states passing 238 bills targeting trans rights since 2021. In January, President Trump issued an executive order that limits what bathrooms trans and nonbinary workers may use in federal buildings, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has paused all LGBTQ+related cases, HR Brew previously reported,

In response, some employers—mainly government contractors—have proactively complied with Trump’s executive order around pronouns. Deloitte, which had $3.2 billion in government contracts last year, told employees on federal accounts that they must remove pronouns from their signatures.

Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly trans person to serve in Congress, doesn’t think that the administration will succeed in erasing current LGBTQ+ protections, NBC News reported. “As much as this president seeks to protest to the contrary, he can’t, with a single stroke of his pen, undo Supreme Court precedent or undo the Constitution.”